Bathurst House And Railings Attached At Front

A town house of early 18th-century date, located on the north side of Micklegate in York. The building was raised to three full storeys around 1822 and underwent further alterations and extensions to the rear in the late 19th century. It was built for Charles and Frances Bathurst.

The front elevation is constructed of orange-brown brick in Flemish bond on a stone plinth, with a timber doorcase and modillion cornice that returns at the right end. The rear is of reddish brick in English garden-wall bond, with a timber eaves cornice partly supported on paired brackets. Brick stacks rise through the slate roof. Iron railings sit on a low stone plinth. The building follows a central entrance hall plan with a service wing to the right rear.

The three-storey, five-bay front has a centre bay that breaks forward above the doorcase. Stone steps lead up to a Doric doorcase with engaged fluted columns and entablature. The panelled door features a patterned radial fanlight set in a panelled reveal within a round-arched architrave with moulded imposts. The windows are sashes: 18 panes on the ground and first floors, 9 panes on the second floor, all with flat arches of gauged brick and painted stone sills. Eight-panel shutters in raised and fielded design survive on the ground floor. Painted bands comprising three raised brick courses run at the first and second floor levels. At each end of the eaves cornice are elaborate rainwater heads bearing the initials CBF above square-section fallpipes with clamps stamped with the Bathurst crest—a hand clasping a serpent.

The rear elevation is three storeys with two windows, a one-storey closet wing projecting to the right, and a two-storey service wing to the left. A central doorway beneath a segmental arch contains a grooved-panel and margin-glazed door. A round-headed staircase window sits beneath a gauged brick arch. A three-course raised brick band at first floor level returns along the wing. A fluted bowl rainwater head stands at the rear of the wing.

The right return presents a three-storey gable wall to the front range, with a two-storey, six-bay service wing to the right. Stone plinth and raised first floor band continue from the front. An inserted round-arched doorway of painted gauged brick with moulded stone imposts and hoodmould appears in the gable wall. Windows show evidence of alteration, with traces of earlier segmental brick arches surviving. The service wing has a six-panel door and divided overlight towards its right end. Its windows are 12-pane sashes, those on the ground floor in enlarged openings with flat arches and those on the first floor with cambered arches. A moulded eaves cornice and fluted bowl rainwater head appear at the right end, positioned above a fallpipe with fleur-de-lys clamps.

The interior basement retains a length of medieval wall supporting later brick vaulting. The ground floor entrance hall features pedimented doorcases on each side, plasterwork cornice and an oval ceiling panel. The room to the left is subdivided by an elliptical arch, now blocked but visible to the rear; its front part retains a moulded cornice and reeded window architraves with angle blocks. The room to the right has a reeded doorcase with paterae, reeded window architraves with angle blocks, grooved panelled reveals with sunk roundels at the corners, and a fluted cornice interspersed with paterae; a late 19th-century ceiling rose sits in a moulded surround. The stairhall arch is round with a fluted keyblock on fielded panel responds with moulded imposts. Two doorcases with sunk panel jambs and angle roundels flank the stairhall to the left; to the right, a moulded round arch with a giant keyblock on plain pilasters with moulded imposts, closed by a margin-glazed door, leads to the service passage. The cornice to the stairhall arch returns above the doorcase to the left and the service passage arch to the right. The service passage has a bold cornice and eight-panel doors re-used in 19th-century architraves. The bottom flight of the secondary staircase, with moulded string, boxed-in balusters, square newels and flat moulded handrail, is located in the service wing. The open string main staircase features double spiral balusters alternating with two fluted turned balusters and a moulded, serpentine handrail, wreathed at its foot around a turned fluted newel on a shaped curtail step. Corresponding fielded dado panelling sweeps up to fluted half newels. The round-headed staircase window, with the bottom sash original, has a keyed moulded and enriched arch on fluted composite pilasters with panelled pedestals. The stairwell ceiling is coved over an enriched dentil cornice with a plasterwork centre panel enclosing a quatrefoil centrepiece. The first floor landing ceiling has a diamond-shaped centrepiece with pomegranates enclosed in a rectangular surround.

The first floor landing doors are of eight raised and fielded panels. A moulded and keyed round arch on sunk panelled pilasters leads to the first floor passage. Both front rooms have reeded window architraves with angle blocks. The former saloon to the right has a reeded doorcase with paterae and window reveals of grooved panelling; a plaster cornice and frieze, probably of embossed paper in Rococo design, decorate the ceiling. The front left room has a reeded cornice and window reveals of fielded panelling. The rear right room retains two walls lined with full-height raised and fielded panelling and a bolection-moulded fireplace with an overmantel panel. The rear left room has a reeded cornice and a window with fielded panelled reveal. The secondary staircase rises from the first floor passage to the second floor, with one attached column half-baluster visible.

The square-section railings and standards with mace finials sweep around the entrance steps and extend at each end. Between 1872 and 1879, the house served as offices for a District Goods Manager of the North Eastern Railway Company.